ENGLAND remain hopeful star batsman Kevin Pietersen will be fit to feature on the winter tour of South Africa.
South African-born Pietersen, 29, has been sidelined since July following Achilles surgery but is expected to be among the names when national selector Geoff Miller announces the Test and one-day parties for the 11-week trip at Lord’s.
Although he is not certain to be fit for the two Twenty20 internationals on November 13 and 15, the England hierarchy remain optimistic of his return during the five-match one-day series, which begins on November 20 in Johannesburg and concludes a fortnight later in Durban.
Pietersen has not played since hobbling out of the Ashes victory at Lord’s and straight into an operating theatre.
His recovery then received a setback when the scar caused by the operation became infected.
Ahead of the announcement for the tour, England captain Andrew Strauss said: “He is getting better quite quickly now so we are very hopeful he will make the trip.
“Hopefully he will play in some one-dayers and then a full part in the rest of the series.
“The sooner he is back the better. It’s going to be as hard a series as we could possibly have at this stage of our development.”
Strauss and England coach Andy Flower addressed Miller and his fellow selectors Ashley Giles and Flower said of Pietersen’s participation: “We can’t say yet but I am still thinking positively along the lines of him starting the tour.”
